D&D General Melf's Guide to Greyhawk Coming From Luke Gygax & WotC

[Mecheon]

I think we're seeing a return to classic, pulpy, Tolkien/Howard fantasy

There is exactly 0% evidence of this, and given pulp fantasy is basically dead and buried in the modern day, I think its a bit of a leap too far for that one.

D&D's at its most popular when its about heroes doing heroic things, so the game responds accordingly. The death kneel for pulp in D&D was Dragonlance getting popular, its not even modern stuff that took it out

 

[Parmandur]

lol no.

I think you're seeing what you're wanting to see. Given their publication history, the increasingly diverse and young composition of the player base, and the absolute explosion of the romantasy genre, all indications are that WotC will continue to pursue its current strategy of inclusive settings that emphasize roleplay and story.

I mean, even their talk of bringing in Luke Gygax and Greyhawk was done in the Name of inclusovity, "One Party".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

D&D's at its most popular when its about heroes doing heroic things, so the game responds accordingly. The death kneel for pulp in D&D was Dragonlance getting popular, its not even modern stuff that took it out

I'm reading the wonderful Appendix N fiction anthology and it's kind of a shock to the system.

While a lot of it definitely prefigures D&D -- the Excellent Prismatic Spray, the gameplay loop of Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser's lives in the every D&D campaign city of Lankhmar, etc. -- it's shocking how little of this resembles any fantasy properties that came out after the Hickman Revolution.

Anyone hoping to return to this kind of flavor in their RPG games should -- obligatory plug here -- be looking for it in the OSR, where you will have multiple well-supported games competing for your business. But it's absolutely not what the biggest name in fantasy RPGs is going to be worrying about today, because it's separated by multiple generations from what's popular today.

 

[Marc17]

I'm reading the wonderful Appendix N fiction anthology and it's kind of a shock to the system.

While a lot of it definitely prefigures D&D -- the Excellent Prismatic Spray, the gameplay loop of Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser's lives in the every D&D campaign city of Lankhmar, etc. -- it's shocking how little of this resembles any fantasy properties that came out after the Hickman Revolution.

I did my own read through of Appendix N some years ago. I just went to the used book stores and looked for authors I had never heard of such as Merrit, Fox, Brackett, etc. I was surprised how easy it was to find them, even the specific books mentioned although they had always passed below my notice. Anyway, my take away was that almost everything I was reading was basically portal fantasy, earth man transported to the fantasy world. I had also read Quag Keep and was sort of surprised D&D didn't look more like the D&D cartoon with everybody playing themselves.

 

[Parmandur]

I did my own read through of Appendix N some years ago. I just went to the used book stores and looked for authors I had never heard of such as Merrit, Fox, Brackett, etc. I was surprised how easy it was to find them, even the specific books mentioned although they had always passed below my notice. Anyway, my take away was that almost everything I was reading was basically portal fantasy, earth man transported to the fantasy world. I had also read Quag Keep and was sort of surprised D&D didn't look more like the D&D cartoon with everybody playing themselves.

Tolkien sort of invented non-portal fantasy (that is, what Lloyd Alexander called "High Fantasy"). Portal fantasy used to be the only game in town.

 

[Stormonu]

For all we know, the book is about Melf's chain of coffee shops across Oerth. Just, you know, gritty coffee houses with a Jeff Easley cover.

Is that a grindhouse joke?

 

[Nicholas Reed]

I mean, even their talk of bringing in Luke Gygax and Greyhawk was done in the Name of inclusovity, "One Party".

I'm not sure why a reembracing of D&D's past and being inclusive is counterintuitive? I'm not saying WotC is going to make their own version of Shadowdark. I expect 5.5E to get much love and support until well into the 2030s. I'm saying I think the era of "we have to change insert thing or Twitter will yell at us" is over and that we're going to be getting more stories more in tone with, for a modern example, Baldur's Gate 3 or Curse of Strahd, or the Dragonlance Chronicles of old. I think they're going to be less afraid of what early 2020s/lock down era social media would consider "problematic" thanks to the success of things like BG 3 and the continued dominance of fantasy like A Song of Ice and Fire, Tolkien's Legendarium, etc. We can be inclusive of orientation and gender identity and still fight the Dark Lord's evil orc armies is the vibe I'm getting. And a return to a grittier style of Greyhawk fits that vibe, along with an HBO Baldur's Gate show which will undoubtedly be TV MA, etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Anyway, my take away was that almost everything I was reading was basically portal fantasy, earth man transported to the fantasy world.

You ended up with a pretty random pull list, in that case.